Annoying family really... annoying!

Is it me or is the faux family: “The Colemans” – dreamed up by the marketing gurus for the Countdown/Foodtown supermarket chain – without doubt the most annoying people to ever grace our television screens?
I know that is a big claim to make when you consider some of the jerks, tosspots and irritating people the idiot box has foisted upon hapless viewers in this country over the years.
Who can forget – although I’d love to – Nick Tansley (from that awful game show “With a bucket on your head”)? How about Belinda Todd? The ginga-slapper from Nightline who went on to become the ‘star’ of New Zealand’s most embarrassing attempt at a comedy show ever ‘ Melody Rules’.
What about the ubiquitous Jason Gunn? (Someone who I’d find annoying just standing in the street). Then there is the list of no-talent losers like Brent Todd, Wendy Botha, Matthew Ridge and just about anybody else – apart from Marc Ellis – that producer Julie Christie has ever introduced to television.
Without a doubt these are all pretty annoying characters, so it could only be the ‘creative types’ – ie marketing and advertising tossers – who could possibly top these real-life jerks, with made up ones! So hats off to Countdown's publicity experts – they have done an outstanding job in creating the oh-so infuriating Colemans.
Their concept is not even new. Back in the day, we had the ‘Fernleaf’ family who were used quite successfully for a number of years to flog tonnes of butter, cheese and milk to local consumers. Hell, this made-up family even survived a change in product name from Fernleaf to Mainland without too much fuss.
And then we had ASB’s Ira Goldstein who has only just recently been retired back to the US after more than a decade on our screens. We came to love the goofy yank sent over to little old ‘Enzed’ by his over-bearing boss to report on a successful Kiwi bank was run.
So the Countdown's over-paid, skate-board-riding creative’s have not even been that creative with the birth of their phony Coleman family. And to make matters worse, not only do this latter-day, version of the smarmy Walton clan infest almost every ad break on my TV; now they sending me junk mail as well!
Only just this week, in the post, I received a pretend photocopied Christmas letter from the pretend Countdown family. Now it is annoying enough when you get one of these photocopied Christmas letters (where people write a generic letter skiting about their family’s ‘wonderful year’ and then send to everyone they know at Christmas time). But to actually get one from a pretend family that I don’t know – or ever want to know – is really, really annoying!
so while I have only just been introduced to Nikki, Rob, Wills, Jess and baby Joshy Coleman – I’ve already had enough of the mind-numbingly antics of this grating ‘family’. In fact, I am so sick of the annoying Colemans that they are about to turn this regular, long-time Foodtown customer into a loyal client of Foodstuffs - the fierce rival of the Countdown supermarket group.
I am certain that this kind of reaction to this slick marketing ploy – to use today’s vernacular – can safely be labelled as an ‘epic fail’!
Previously, the only Colemans I knew of was the well-known brand of mustards.
However, it seems the fake Countdown family is fast becoming very much like their condiment namesake – an unnecessary addition only ever needed in very, tiny doses!
Do me a favour Countdown and phase out the Coleman family pronto - just like you are currently doing with your Foodtown and Woolworth brands!